I thought the premise of the book was good and easily became hooked. Then the book really started to tank. A great idea does not a book make. The book felt like it had been witten with the message first and the plot only there to shove the message in your face. I thought a glaring hole existed when the only characters introduced in the book were alphas and the savage. A society so heavily based on eugenics and caste, and we don’t get to meet any of the lower members? Odd. Also, with such large issues to deal with, the author seemed to disproportionatly focus on femle promiscuity in this horrible new world. Really? That’s the biggest problem? And why are there so many shakespear quotes? I mean, the novel isn’t that thick to begin with. I suppose the constant quotes were included to beef up the page count.

So now that I’ve ripped this book a new one, I will say everyone should probably read it. It is one of those modern classics that pops up from time to time. The premise is interesting, the gently fascist consumerist government model is interesting, and it might be worth it just for the fordisms.

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley. Harper Perennial Modern Classics 2006, Paperback, 288 pages, $7.97

Alice Munro did a terrific job giving each character a disctinct voice, and the relationships and motivations sublty unfold as the plot carries you along. I think though, that I didn’t really ‘get it’. I think Alice Munro has an incredible ability to fit an entire lifetime in a fraction of the sapce of most novelists, but by the end I had a hard time connecting the stories as a whole, or finding a truth or message to come away with. While the stories mostly involved the same central location, I kept looking for more overlap or cohesion. I didn’t find satisfaction, but that is most likely a problem with my own expectations and not the collection.

I would recommend this book if you love Canadian authors, or if you only have time to read about 40 pages in one sitting.

Open Secrets

Alice Munro. Vintage 1995, Paperback, 294 pages, $8.44

Anne Enright’s writing is lovely to read. Her writing is beautifully descriptive, honest, poignant and flows well through a book based on internal dialogue. Then every few pages you get slapped in the face with repeated descriptions of genitals and bodily functions. I think the point was to sharpen the corners and add some stark, raw, contrast, but after the shock value wore out it was really just unnecessary and distracting.

I felt the memory laden writing style worked well for a book based around grief, with a romantic, introspective journey through lives lived and choices made. I am trying to decide whether I liked the constant alterations and midirections as Veronica’s memories unfolded. I felt a real sense and depth of the characters, but most of the time their development was based on memories made up, memories imagined ending several ways, and usually no concrete answer as to what actually happened. While it is true that memory is an ephemeral thing that changes and corrodes as time passes, I’m not sure I enjoyed it as it moved the plot along.

What I took away from this book was an interesting insight into the hardships and complications of living in such a large family, how sharing a past with someone can change you, and how grief can cause you to question your choices. (Also how grief can cause you to become a little bit selfish and self distructive.) By the end I took the good parts of this novel with me and left the rest behind.

The Gathering

Anne Enright. Grove Press 2007, Hardcover, 272 pages, $13.00

I enjoyed this book and the continuing saga of the foundation; until I realized I had missed an entire book in the series and didn’t even notice. So I ordered this book from the library, and not really paying attention just assumed the book titled Second Foundation was the second book in the series. Oops. This is book three and I missed book two, Foundation and Empire. I didn’t notice until today, when I went to look up this book and saw the books in order. One of my complaints in the first novel was the continual jumps through time that pushed the plot forward by hundreds of years and made it hard to connect with the characters. When I picked up this book and started reading I didn’t even find it odd that it was hundreds of years in the future and I didn’t know any of the characters. I’m trying very hard not to let my glaring mistake cloud my judgement of the book.

This book only has one major jump forward, so you have some time to connect with each set of characters. The characters this time through were also far better written, more developed, and the second half even has a strong female lead. However, the paradoxical thinking concerning predestination and mind control just seemed redundant and pointless after a while. If everything is predestined, then every choice you will ever make isn’t really a choice. If everything isn’t predestined, than your individual choices and actions matter. Either way though, you won’t ever know the answer. Should I do A or should I do B? What if my mind has been tampered with and I should do the opposite of what I think I should do? Or maybe I should do what I think I should do because if they had controlled my mind they would expect me to wonder if it had been tampered with and do the opposite of what I think I should do. Wow. Those kind of conundrums repeatedly get old fast. I read the synopsis of the second book in the series and it sounded like it had more action and some attempted plot twists. I am debating now whether to go back and read it too.

Second Foundation (Foundation Novels)

Isaac Asimov. Spectra 2008, Paperback, 272 pages, $6.80

I last read this book sometime in the late nineties and thought it was time to revisit it. I enjoyed it, but felt after 10+ years I was seeing it with a different perspective. I still love Anne Rice’s writing. The pacing suffered slightly from a little too much inner dialog and the frequent movement between the present and past, but I find her characters, descriptions and writing style beautiful, expressive, and darkly sensual.

My memories that had remained were of strong characters, a well developed and intricate world, and the struggle between humanity and vampire depravation without conscience. However, this time through I saw it less as a book about vampires, and more as a book about how the questions raised and answered apply to everyone. We all feel loss, we all long for something more, and we all constantly fight to balance our desires and compulsions against who we would like to be. We all have complicated relationships. We all choose the people in our lives, then start, continue and end relationships with them for complicated reasons. Sometimes we know our motivations, and sometimes we struggle to find our own explanations. Placing all these questions and emotions in the context of eternal life with interesting and tragically tortured vampires just makes the journey more fun. (Except when you realize Louis has lived over 200 years and is still struggling. I guess time doesn’t heal all wounds, ha ha.)

I remember enjoying the second book in the series more and will probably get to it soon. I also can’t get enough of her decadent description of New Orleans, they are a real treat. I wouldn’t call this book scary, but there are darker themes, hinted sexuality, and depictions of violence and killing.

Interview with the Vampire

Anne Rice. Ballantine Books 1997, Paperback, 352 pages, $6.71

While the scenario, characters and events all unfold in a natural sequence, it still seemed manufactured. I was left with no sense of the character’s motivations. At some points there are twelve people living in one house with no mention as to their personal relationships with one another. They are only ever just a group, doing x y z.

Patriots falls quite heavily on the guns n ammo side of the survival equation, and the lengthy, detailed, never ending descriptions of EVERY firearm in the ENTIRE BOOK will wear out your patience. (Unless gun descriptions get you hot, in that case this book is tripple X.) I also recommend preparing in advance for the awkward and cliched dialog so your brain doesn’t get hurt stumbling through it. One of the best reviews I’ve ever read suggested you know you are reading a fantasy book when there is a map at the front. Well, you know you are reading a survival book when there is a six page glossary of military acronyms at the back. I did enjoy the quotes at the beginning of each chapter; I loved seeing Gene Roddenberry in there with Shakespeare and Thomas Jefferson. For your daily survival fix I highly recommend checking out the author’s fantastic blog, survivalblog.com. If you can’t survive after reading this book you just aren’t trying.

Patriots

James Wesley Rawles. Ulysses Press 2009, Paperback, 384 pages, $9.05

Imagine America suddenly being thrust back into the nineteenth century. Everything is very quickly in short supply as the massively fragile web of distribution across the country goes down. Neighbors turn on neighbors and martial law is enforced. Tough decisions are faced as John increasingly takes on a more prominent roll in the community and tries to navigate crime, punishment, outside threats, starvation, and the increasingly dire prognosis for his diabetic daughter. I found this novel balanced with just the right amount of large scale crisis and drama while dealing with everyday impact and personal choices. Not to sound like a horrible human being, but I found this scenario quite frightening just for the fact that no people are actually killed from the high altitude EMP blast. While most post apocalyptic books wipe out a LARGE percentage of the population in the initial attack, with an EMP everyone survives and will have to struggle through the second stage of the catastrophe and resulting die off. I noticed the film rights were sold to Warner Brothers so I will keep an eye out for the eventual release of the movie.

One Second After

Newt Gingrich (Foreword). Forge Books 2009, Hardcover, 352 pages, $14.63